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Dear Friends,

Given the current situation in regard to COVID-19, following the guidance of the CDC, and in partnership with Skidmore College and the Saratoga Performing Arts Center, Saratoga Shakespeare Company has made the difficult decision to modify our upcoming 2020 Summer Season. Please see our website for information regarding our programming for this summer.

Shakespeare wrote during a time of plague. His works, however, contain little reference to the ravages of the disease during his time. He chose to focus, instead, on the uniqueness of humanity in its extremes; despair, physical and emotional pain and suffering. He also showed us joy, happiness, laughter and acts of heartbreaking empathy achieved at great cost.

Often trauma shuts the human psyche down. It creates an emotional distancing at a time when we most need to express. In a way, Shakespeare’s work reaches out to us from the past, gifting us the ability to express our uniqueness while never ignoring our bond with humanity and each other. Shakespeare reminds us that although we may be isolated, we are not alone. We never have been. A new day will dawn and this too shall pass.

These are challenging times to be sure. There has been loss. We must keep in mind that those who have come before us have also struggled, fought and have risen to meet the challenges of their time, if only by surviving them. We will survive. We will pick up the pieces of that which was broken and then we will need to heal.

As we continue to navigate through this time, Saratoga Shakespeare Company promises to stay vigilant in our efforts to create work, new partnerships and new ways of making theater. For now, we leave our proverbial ghost light lit as a beacon in these dark times, and when the time comes where we can once again gather together to grieve and to celebrate, let us look to Shakespeare’s language to guide us.

With best wishes for health and happiness during this time and with love,